Monitoring surveying students’ environmental attitudes as they experience higher education in New Zealand

Abstract

We investigate the environmental attitudes (EA) of New Zealand’s land surveying students and how they change during a four-year programme. We implemented a multi-cohort survey and developed a longitudinal statistical model of change. Findings suggest that although the EA scores of groups of students vary at different times within and between cohorts, there are no significant general trends when genders are combined. But females tend to start their studies with higher mean EA scores than males and this difference declines overtime. This occurs consistently across the four cohorts studied. This is discussed in relation to women’s role within the profession.

Keywords:

• Surveying education
• Education for sustainable development
• Environmental attitudes
• Student learning
• Learning and teaching
• Gender differences

ORCID

Mick Strack http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9039-3634

Kerry Shephard http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4139-5112

Tim Jowett http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7146-5188

Sheila Skeaff http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7971-5329

Miranda Mirosa http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4476-3793